M.L.A. STYLE FOR ELECTRONIC FORMATTING

by: Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey

[First published in Business Communication Quarterly, March 1997, pp. 59-76. Online version last revised, August 25, 2001.] http://www.westwords.com/guffey/mla.html

MLA Style Electronic Format
---REFERENCES MUST BE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER--

WORLD WIDE WEB SITE (HOME PAGE)
Basic Form
Name of author or creator (if given). Title of Web site. (If no title is available, provide description such as name of site plus Home page, neither underlined nor in quotation marks.) Name of any institution or organization associated with the site. Access date <URL>.

Examples
Gesterland, Richard. WorldBiz.com Page. Retrieved 1 May 2001 <http://www.worldbiz.com/>.
Edmunds.com. Home page. Retrieved 28 Apr. 2000 <http://www.edmunds.com/edweb/>.
Business Ethics Resources on WWW. Centre for Applied Ethics. Retrieved 2 May 2001 <http://www.

ethics.ubc.ca/resources/business/>.


WORLD WIDE WEB (SECONDARY PAGE)
Basic Form
Name of author or creator, if available. "Title of topic or article" (if given). Title of page (if named). Name

of any institution or organization associated with the site. Latest update (if given). Access date

<URL>.
Example
Anderson, Greg. "Can the Trooper and SLX Stand Up?" Edmunds.com. Retrieved 12 Mar. 2001

<http://www.edmunds.com/edweb/anderson/rollover.html>.
"Privacy Protection in Other Countries." Media Awareness Network. Updated Nov. 1999. Retrieved 2

May 2001 <http:// www.media-awareness.ca/eng/issues/priv/laws/lawintl.htm>.
"Data Mining Makes the Difference." SPSS, Inc. Retrieved 2 Feb. 2001 <http://www.spss.com/

datamine/>.


BOOK (ONLINE)
Basic Form
Author. "Chapter." Book Title. Publication information for printed source (if available). Date of electronic

publication, of the latest update, or of posting, if given. Name of any institution or organization

sponsoring or associated with the Web site. Access date <URL>.
Example
Strunk, William, Jr. "Elementary Rules of Usage." The Elements of Style. Project Bartleby Archive,

Columbia University. Retrieved 20 Aug. 2001 <http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/

strunk.html#11>.


BOOK REVIEW (ONLINE)
Basic Form
Author of review. Review of Book Title by Author. Journal or Magazine Title: Volume, Issue, or other

identifying number (Year of publication in parentheses): pages (if given). Access date <URL>.
Example
Hansen, Richard. Review of A Pragmatic Approach to Business Ethics by Alex Michalos. The Online

Journal of Ethics 1.1 (1995). Retrieved 5 May 2001 <http://condor/depaul.edu/ethics/

michalos.html>.


ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE (ONLINE)
Basic Form
Author (if given). "Title of Material Accessed." Date of material (if given). Title of Encyclopedia.

Publication information for any print version of the source if available. Date of electronic

publication, of the latest update, or of posting (if known). [search term if necessary for retrieval].

Access date <URL>.
Example
"Stock Market Crash of 1929." Britannica Online. Vers. 98.2. April, 1998. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 20 August 1999 <http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/567/22.html>.


ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE (CD-ROM)
Basic Form
Author (if given). "Title of Material Accessed." Date of material (if given). Title of Encyclopedia. Edition,

release, or version (if relevant). CD-ROM. Name of vendor (if relevant). Electronic publication date.
Example
"Genetic Engineering." Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. Version 2.0. CD-ROM. Compton's

NewMedia, Inc., 1994.


7. JOURNAL ARTICLE (ONLINE)
Basic Form
Author. "Article Title." Journal Title Volume.Issue or other identifying number (Year of publication in

parentheses): paging. Access date <URL>.
Example
Koehn, Daryl. "The Ethics of Handwriting Analysis in Pre-Employment Screening." The Online Journal

of Ethics 1.1 (1995). Retrieved 2 June 2001 <http://condor/depaul.edu/ethics/hand.html>.


MAGAZINE ARTICLE (ONLINE)
Basic Form
Author. "Article Title." Magazine Title. Date: page (for magazines published every month or two

months, do not give volume and issue numbers even if they are listed). Access date <URL>.
Example
Murphy, H. Lee. "Saturn's Orbit Still High With Consumers." Marketing News Online. 31 Aug. 1998.

Retrieved 1 Sept. 2001 <http://www.ama.org/pubs/mn/0818/n1.htm>.


NEWSPAPER ARTICLE (ONLINE)
Basic Form
Author. "Article Title." Newspaper Title. Date, edition, section: page (if given). Database name (if

applicable). Access date <URL>.
Example
Verhovek, Sam Howe. "Some in Seattle Believe Two Microsofts Might Be Better Than One." The New

York Times. 1 May 2000. Retrieved 3 June 2001 <http://wwwnytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/

biztech_articles/01seat.html>.


DOCUMENT WITHIN DATABASE (ONLINE)
Basic Form
Name of author (if given). "Title of material." Name of database. Name of sponsoring institution or

organization (if relevant). Access date <URL>.
Example
"Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc." Hoover's Online. Hoover's Company Information. Retrieved 20 Jan.

2001 <www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/3/0,2163,12763,00.html>.